Ponytale
by Flutter-SparkX
Summary: A little lavender filly, led by her curiosity, finds herself in the Underground... and finds an adventure she never imagined.


Chapter 1: Arrival

No one was there to see the unicorn land on the bed of golden flowers, nor was there a soul around to wonder how she had managed to survive with naught but the flowers themselves to cushion the landing. But land she did, and in quiet stillness the lavender pony lay for several long minutes before she finally began to stir. A hoof moved slowly up to the horn peeking out through the bangs of her navy-blue, pink-and-purple-streaked mane, rubbing at its base and the temples around it. Then, as the same hoof joined its three fellows in raising her to a fully standing position, the same filly groaned and opened her amethyst eyes to the world around her, blinking in the halo of light shining from above, as she gazed out into the darkness.

Tentatively, she stepped out from the ring of flowers and swallowed down a lump in her throat before calling out, "H-hello? Is anypony there? Hello...?"

Yet no answer came. She sighed and bowed her head a moment before looking up to the hole far overhead, many hundreds of feet above her. There would be no getting back through the hole, even with teleportation magic–not that she knew how to use such magic, anyway. Once more she looked around, walking slowly around the bed of now thoroughly crushed flowers with a growing sense of dread.

Dread, thankfully, that faded as she spied a doorway off to the side. Eyes darting about, she walked towards it, her ears twitching at the loud clack of her hooves against the stone. Passing under the doorway's arch, she blinked as she found herself in a room just as dark as the last, though with a patch of light coming down to shine upon a mound of grass with a single flower in the center. With a pure white center surrounded by bright golden petals and supported by an equally bright green stem, it made the filly suddenly aware of her hunger, her mouth watering as she approached. But that hunger abruptly died out as she backpedaled, stunned, at seeing a pair of beady black eyes and a little thin mouth open in the flower's center, forming a simple little face.

"Howdy!" The flower chuckled as she blinked in utter stupefaction, its voice chipper like that of a child. "I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! What's your name, hmm?"

The filly found her lips slowly curling up into a smile as she replied, "T-Twilight Sparkle. Um, a-are you really a...a talking flower?"

Flowey laughed and shook his head. "Asked the talking pony!" As Twilight laughed with him, albeit nervously, at his little joke, Flowey smiled brightly. "I'm gonna guess you're new to the Underground, huh?"

"The Underground?" Twilight blinked as she bent her knees slightly to get closer to the flower's level. "What exactly is 'the Underground'?"

Flowey just laughed. "This whole place, of course!"

"Oh. Well, in that case, yes. I mean, I know I've never been here before. I'd remember a talking flower."

Flowey rolled his eyes, chuckling lightly. "Gee, nice to know I'd be something memorable, if nothing else. Still, I gotta warn ya, things down here in the Underground are kinda different from what you know up on the surface." He suddenly grinned widely and said, "Say, d'ya want me to show ya the ropes?"

Twilight gasped. "You mean you'd teach me what's different? Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes!"

* * *

Flowey cackled inside as the world around himself and this lavender filly, this Twilight Sparkle, seemed to vanish, replaced by a pitch black emptiness. Seeing her jump at the sudden change and watching as her form turned dark and transparent, revealing a glowing red heart in her chest, he smiled, struggling to hold back the sinister intent rising within him. It was always so much fun to watch newcomers react to the change, especially as the glowing white lines formed themselves on the ground around them, trapping them.

 _All too easy,_ he thought. Aloud, he said, "Okay, d'you see that heart in your middle?"

Twilight's hoof rose to rest over her chest, her eyes wide as she stared, open-mouthed, at the gently glowing heart. "W-what is it? ...is that my actual heart...? Why's it glowing like that?"

"Well," Flowey said, gesturing with a leaf unraveled from his stem, "that's not actually your physical heart. No, that is something much more important–it's your SOUL."

Twilight's eyes, if possible, grew even wider. "My... soul," she breathed. She closed her eyes, hoof resting over her chest, and slowly smiled ever so slightly. "It's...really warm..."

Flowey blinked, staring in confusion. No one had ever reacted to their first glimpse of their own soul like this before. He supposed it might just be because she was different like that in regards to her personality.

 _Not that it'll matter for much longer,_ he chuckled, schooling his features back to friendliness. "Yep, that's your soul. The glow is pretty normal–most souls from the surface glow like that. However, you should know that every soul starts off pretty weak. But, you can make it stronger by getting a lot of LV."

"LV? What's that?" Twilight asked.

"Why, it's LOVE, of course! I'll bet you want some, don't you? Well, I'd be more than happy to–"

Flowey blinked, once more confused, as Twilight's stats became visible beneath her heart. There was the usual yellow bar beside a group of letters and numbers, along with a lavender bar that had nothing to explain its purpose. The latter was strange enough, but the stats beside the yellow bar were what made him pause.

~ Twilight ~ LV 1/2 ~ HP 50/50 ~ ? 1 ~ ? ?/? ~

The above-average HP, as far as Flowey knew, was nothing important to worry about–different creatures would naturally have different measurements of health. The LV was unexpected, but not a big deal–clearly, she wasn't much inclined towards gaining LOVE. No, what confused him was the question marks. That had never shown up before on anyone he had encountered from the surface. Whatever they were, one was clearly a measurement of something with a limit, probably to do with the lavender bar. But what was the other one?

Shrugging, Flowey looked back at Twilight's face–and stared, seeing tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.

"H-half a LV...?" she said, hiccuping as she did. "I-is that–*hic*–is that normal...?"

Flowey slowly shook his head, an eyebrow rising over one eye. "Er, no, not really." Seeing her sniffle and sit heavily backward on her rump, he quickly raised two leaves in an imitation of placating hands. "D-don't worry, though! I'll give you some LOVE!"

 _Anything to keep from dealing with a crybaby._

"R-really?" Twilight sniffled and wiped her eyes, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. "Y-you'd do that for me...?"

Flowey grinned, fighting back a wicked cackle. "Sure! After all, I said I'd teach ya how things work down here!"

As the lavender filly perked and stood up, wiping her eyes again with a foreleg, the golden-petaled flower grinned. _All too easy._

* * *

Twilight watched as Flower smiled, a group of small white dots, almost like specks of snow, formed in the air around him, five in all. "Down here," he said, "LOVE is shared through all kinds of ways, but I prefer to use these little white 'friendliness pellets'. All you gotta do is hold still while I send 'em over to you, okay?"

Twilight nodded, smiling, and watched as the first of the pellets flew towards her. She waited, smile slowly widening, as it came steadily closer. Then, when it touched her...

She yelped, eyes flying wide open, as a sudden, sharp pain rushed through her body, focusing in her chest and almost flashing outward through her every limb. It was so strong it made her stumble backward, panting, as she realized it had come from her chest...exactly where the pellet had struck her. She felt the blood drain from her face as Flowey's grin suddenly changed, exposing jagged teeth in the most cruel, sadistic smile she had ever seen, and one by one the other pellets slammed into her. Each time one hit home against her body, it sent the same jolting pain through her, centered each time in her chest.

 _No,_ she realized. _That's not my chest it's coming from; it's my soul. He... He's attacking my soul...!_

As the last pellet struck home, Twilight yelped, shoved backwards from the impact, and collapsed back and sideways onto her side, pressing a hoof to her chest as the pain subsided. She looked up, panting, and stared in horror at the yellow bar floating beside her glowing soul. Where she had once seen 50/50, it had now dropped al the way to 1/50, and the yellow bar beside it had turned almost entirely red, with only the smallest sliver of yellow remaining like a thread.

 _A thread,_ she thought with a shudder, _that's about to be cut._

* * *

Flowey cackled as he glared at the cowering filly. "You little idiot. Don't you know anything? Down here, it's 'kill or [i]be[/i] killed'! Who in there right mind would pass up this kind of opportunity? Not me, dummy!"

His cackling grew louder as he conjured a ring of magic bullets, orbiting them just outside the barrier of the box in which his victim was trapped–a barrier she quickly rose to attempt to pierce, but to no avail–and he grinned viciously. He did so enjoy it when his victims were scared...

"Been nice meetin' ya, STUPID!"

With that declaration, he cackled again, slowly constricting the ring of bullets, passing them through the barrier as Twilight moved to the center of the box it formed. She was heaving heavy breaths, glancing around every direction in terror, desperately seeking a way out. He felt his grin grow, if possible, even wider, almost literally splitting his face in two...only for the grin to falter as her horn suddenly glowed.

"What are you–"

Flowey's voice cut off and his eye widened in horror as, suddenly, the lavender bar turned red.

* * *

"Please, leave me alone!"

Twilight stood on her hindlegs as she cried out, trying to give herself more space to move, buy more time to try and think her way out of this situation. Flowey had seemed so nice, but he'd turned out to be this cold-hearted thing that wanted to kill her–her, when she had done nothing at all to him! She clenched her eyes shut, trying to reach inside of herself as she'd once read to do, trying to tap into something there she didn't know how to find. She ignored his words though she could easily hear them, and begged the heavens to save her.

She called within for help...

...and found DETERMINATION.

~ Twilight cast Magic Surge ~

Suddenly, she felt her horn become enveloped in a powerful, tingling warmth that rushed through her every fiber down to her hooves, flowed like a river suddenly freed from the blockage of a dam, and rushed back upwards. It coalesced first in her horn before completely wrapping around her, overwhelming her senses, leaving her unaware to anything but vague outlines beyond the glow, unaware that her eyes had turned completely white. It was like nothing she had ever felt before, as if some immense force had laid dormant within her, had been fueled by her desire to exist beyond this moment of terror, and was now rising to grant her wish.

"Wait," she could hear Flowey saying, his voice spiking in pitch, "you can use magic?!"

Focusing upon Flowey's voice and the outline she could see of him through the warm, bright lavender light obscuring her vision, Twilight ignored the words themselves and rallied herself. She thought of what he'd said about LOVE, how he'd betrayed her, and how much it had hurt. And Twilight, with what little control she had over the maelstrom building around her, gave it a target to focus on.

* * *

In the moment the lavender light enveloped Twilight, turning her eyes a pure white, Flowey gasped and almost withdrew into himself. A mixture of awe, terror and utter shock froze him up inside, draining what little warmth usually collected in his face to drain away. She was using magic, and a lot of it–far more than he was using to conjure his ring of bullets. Glancing at her soul and stats, he blinked...then gasped in terror.

~Twilight ~ LV 1/2 ~ HP 1/50 ~ ? 1 ~ MP 0/100 ~

 _Sweet Honey Ice Tea,_ he mentally screamed. _What the f–!?_

Twilight's eyes suddenly snapped to him, her brow furrowing, and her horn flashed with a pure white light as she screamed,

"Leave! _Me! _**_ALONE!_** "

The shockwave of pure magic blasted away all of Flowey's bullets, supercharging many of them and causing them to lodge themselves permanently into the masonry of the walls as others ricocheted back into his command boxes, breaking them as the barrier around Twilight shattered like glass. The force of it was such that he was uprooted completely from the ground and flung backward through the doorway behind him, three of his petals knocked loose to leave a trail behind him. He wasn't sure how long he was flying for, but the moment he finally touched down he immediately dove under the dirt, panting and gasping. He made a mental note to return only once she was calmed down as one word repeated over and over from his lips amidst the echo of Twilight's scream.

"NOPE!"

* * *

As the energy around her faded, Twilight slumped to the ground, not even registering as her body reverted to normal, revealing cuts along her sides and chest where Flowey's bullets had struck her. She simply lay there, panting and sniffling, as tears once again began to well up in her eyes. Flowey had been so nice to her at first, offering to teach her about the Underground and share LOVE with her. Then he'd attacked and hurt her, deliberately and without any sign of compassion or mercy in his face. He would have killed her, and she'd lost all focus of his words

Why? All she'd wanted was to learn, to be shown how to get LOVE. Was there something wrong with her? Was she... not meant to be loved...? Was that why she and Shining...?

 _Mom... Dad... Is this why you both..._

"Oh my, are you alright, child?"

Twilight gasped, scooting back from the direction of the voice, her eyes darting about wildly. "N-no, s-stay back! Leave me alone!"

Eyes locking on the hole Flowey had left behind, she dove, scrambling as she tried to force as much of herself inside as she could, shivering from fear. All the while she listened, peeking out to see who or what had called out and begging that they would simply leave her be. She expected to see some great beast coming through the doorway through which Flowey had been sent flying, coming to finish what he had started. She expected to see a shadow in the doorway become something frightening and vicious.

She peeked out of the hole...and gasped.

It was a pony, easily three times as tall as she with a pure white coat, her form draped in purple robes with white sleeves. A mane embodying the colors of a sky at sunrise flowed behind her head in a nonexistent breeze, her tail colored and flowing to match. Her every step seemed precisely articulated, golden hoofshoes quietly tapping as she approached. Her elegant, slender form came a literal head with the gentlest, kindest face topped by a thin, spiraling horn and almost glowing as her eyes, a bright amethyst lighter than Twilight's own eyes, met the face of the cowering filly.

The tall mare smiled as she looked Twilight over for a moment then said, "Do not fear, my child. I'm not going to hurt you."

Twilight said nothing in reply, but continued to shiver and otherwise remain very still. Taking this in stride, the mare slowly knelt and brought her head to the filly's level, her face screwing up with worry and concern as Twilight inched just the slightest bit back from her.

"Oh, you poor thing," the mare said. "You're shaking as if the world around you is frozen... Tell me, child, who did this to you?"

As the mare gestured to her wounds with a hoof, Twilight sniffled and bowed her head pitifully. "A-a flower..."

"A flower?" The mare looked surprised and confused.

"Y-yes... He s-said he was going to h-help me, but instead h-he..."

The mare glanced around for a moment, her eyes slowly widening. Then she paused and looked down at Twilight again, and for a moment the little filly feared she was considering exactly what Twilight had feared she would. But then, to the filly's surprise, she simply sat down on her haunches and reached out a hoof, brushing it through the filly's mane.

"What a terrible, despicable creature that flower must have been," she murmured, "to have taken advantage of one so young and innocent... Do not worry, my little pony; I will help you. Truly," she added, seeing Twilight cower, "I will. I am not like that flower by any means. He, I am sure, used his powers to hurt you, but I..."

She raised her head slightly, and from her back there spread a pair of great white feathery wings, the sight eliciting a gasp from the astonished filly.

"...prefer to heal," the mare finished, smiling warmly.

Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat and stuttered, "Y-you're a... an Alicorn... B-but there are no Alicorns...! They're just a myth!"

The mare giggled, attempting to stifle it with her hoof, and gently stroked the filly's head with one of her wings. "I assure you," she said, "I am very real."

Twilight sighed, then whimpered as the feathers of the wing brushed across her scalp through her mane. The feathers were so soft, they felt wonderful, but in the same motion they were brushing over scratches left by Flowey's attacks, drawing forth little whimpers and winces as she fought back tears. But these sounds faded into a gasp of surprise as the same wing, joined by its twin, gently scooped her up, pulling her to the chest of the white Alicorn, and nestled her there. The tall mare's forelegs carefully wrapped themselves around her alongside the wings, cradling her so that her head rested comfortably on the mare's bosom.

Then there was a warmth, gentle and soothing, flowing through her and twilight blinked, eyes widening, as she noticed a golden glow enveloping her. She looked up and stared at the mare's serene, caring face and the bright blowing horn of the mare just above, then sniffled as tears once more welled up in here eyes. Desperate for comfort, she pressed herself tightly to the mare's chest as she felt her wounds slowly closing and sealing themselves up, the pain fading to a distant memory. She blinked for a moment, then smiled, as the mare began to hum, the sound reverberating through her chest into the filly's tiny body, and gently nuzzled her head.

Surrounded by warmth and enveloped in a hug so loving, the filly found herself filled with something she could only describe as a mixture of relief, love... and DETERMINATION.


End file.
